2023: PDP Puts APC on Edge with Fresh Suit

Apparently encouraged by the judgment of the Federal High Court that nullified the nomination of Osun State governor, Gboyega Oyetola, as the governorship candidate in the July governorship election, the Peoples Democratic Party has attempted to throw the ruling All Progressives Congress off balance with a fresh suit seeking the dissolution of the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee. How the main opposition party hopes to succeed in this mission remains to be seen, Adedayo Akinwale writes

Despite the internal crisis rocking it, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) last week made effort to put the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on edge when it filed a suit before a Federal High Court in Abuja seeking to sack the  Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee (NWC).

 In a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1864/2022, and filed through Ayo Kamaldeen Ajibade, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), PDP is contesting the legality of the process that produced the Adamu-led NWC, which took over the affairs of APC after the party’s national convention in March this year.

The fresh suit is predicated on a recent judgment of a Federal High Court, which nullified the nomination of Osun State governor, Gboyega Oyetola and his deputy, Benedict Alabi, as APC candidates in the July governorship election in the state.

The presiding judge, Emeka Nwite, who delivered the ruling on September 30, in a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/468/2022 held that the nomination of Oyetola and his deputy was unlawful.

The court based its judgment on the grounds that Yobe State governor, Mai Mala Buni, who submitted their names to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), violated the provisions of Section 183 of the Constitution and Section 82(3) of the Electoral Act, 2022. when he held dual executive positions as the Governor of Yobe State and the Chairman of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the APC. 

With the court’s judgment, the PDP is now praying the court to void the APC NWC as well as all candidates produced by the party for the 2023 general election on the grounds that they were produced in breach of the 1999 Constitution, the party’s constitution and Electoral Act 2022.

The main opposition party in the suit cited illegality in the process that produced the party’s national officers and candidates as grounds. It therefore demanded that all candidates produced by APC for the 2023 general election be disqualified from the race having been allegedly produced in breach and gross violation of the 1999 Constitution and Electoral Act 2022.

The case file has been assigned to Justice Inyang Ekwo, who has fixed November 22 for mention of the suit with an order that all the 53 persons listed by PDP as defendants be served with hearing notices in their respective locations.

APC presidential candidate, Senator Bola Tinubu; the party’s vice-presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima, as well as governorship candidates, their running mates, Senatorial and House of Representatives candidates were listed as defendants in the suit.

Interestingly, the Supreme Court gave the PDP a ray of hope when it delivered the judgment between Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of APC and Eyitayo Jegede of the PDP on July 27, 2021, which came with a split margin of 4 to 3. 

Though the majority judgment of the Supreme Court was silent on the implications of Buni being joined in the case, the minority judgment which was presented by Justice Mary Odili (rtd) made it very clear that Buni functioning as APC Caretaker Committee chairman and at the same time serving as executive governor of a state was a violation of the 1999 Constitution.

Section 183 expressly states: “The Governor, shall not, during the period he holds office, hold any other executive office or paid employment in any capacity whatsoever.” 

Sensing dangers in keeping the Buni-led interim leadership in office, which could lead to legal storms that would ultimately affect the party’s chances in the 2023 general election, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo had suggested that for the party to avoid grave danger, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party should meet and reconstitute the Caretaker Committee  to exclude, not only Buni, but anyone holding any executive position in any government establishment as stipulated in Article 17 of the APC Constitution.

Alternatively, he said the Board of Trustees of the party, which includes President Muhammadu Buhari should be activated to organise a national convention in line with Article 13 of the APC Constitution, where it is given such powers. 

But all his warnings fell on deaf ears as the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), countered his position.  Malami argued that the draftsmen of the Constitution would not have considered the position Buni held as an elective position due to its meritless nature.

Malami, who laid out his argument in a 20-point against the decision reached by the Supreme Court, described the interpretation of the 1999 Constitution as “stretched.”

He said: “To further show the meritless nature of the position under review, assuming without conceding that the argument is right, then, it will equally be contrary to the spirit and intent of Section 183 of the Constitution for any sitting Governor to be Chairman of say the Governors’ Forum, Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, or any other similar body. This, in my humble view, can definitely not be the intention of the drafters of the 1999 Constitution.”

His views were further given impetus when a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, struck out a suit challenging the competence of the Buni-led Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the APC. Justice Pheobe Msuen Ayua held that the action was non-justiciable and incurably incompetent, noting that the substratum of the matter bordered on the internal affairs of the ruling APC.

But with the Federal High Court judgment delivered on September 30, 2022 and its current subsisting nature, the biggest threat posed by the ruling to the APC is the possible disqualification of all its candidates for the 2023 elections, including the presidential ticket of Senator Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, considering that Adamu’s NWC conducted the primaries. Put succinctly, once the NWC is invalidated by the reason of Buni’s involvement, all actions of the NWC would be deemed null and void. 

But a former National Legal Adviser of the party, Babatunde Ogala (SAN), thought otherwise when he said he did not know how anyone might imagine that the convention would be affected by the judgment.

Ogala stated: “I do not know how this would affect the convention, where the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party sat down and fixed a date for its convention. I do not know how anyone might imagine, in the wildest imagination, that the convention would be affected because Mai Mala Buni attended as head of the Caretaker Committee. I stand to be corrected or educated on that, but I don’t know how.

“What is the correlation between Mai Mala Buni being the head of Interim Committee and participating in a convention that was called by the National Executive of the party or indeed even by any member of the party or by members of the party where the convention was properly convoked to the quorum and prescribed by the party’s Constitution.

“Let me also quickly say here that APC has two conventions, one in March that gave birth to the Abdulahi Adamu-led executive and the other in April that led to the emergence of the presidential candidate, which was the convention midwife by the National Working Committee of the party in accordance with the party’s constitution.”

For Kunle Adegoke (SAN), “PDP has no locus standi to challenge the internal affairs of APC. There is no decision of Supreme Court that has nullified Buni’s erstwhile leadership.

“All PDP is doing is mere exhibition of desperation to return to power by all means, whether fair or foul. Section 285(14) of the Constitution is not an unbridled license for any political party to challenge internal affairs of another political party.”

However, human rights lawyer, Mr. Liborous Oshoma, said if the judgment nullifying Oyetola’s nomination is sustained by the Supreme Court, it means that every decision taken by the Buni committee, including the congresses and convention organised by the committee amounted to nullity, which he said would put the ruling APC in a quagmire.

 The human rights activist remarked that going by the ruling of Justice Nwite and by the provisions of the law, Buni never existed and any action taken by somebody that never existed amounted to nullity because it is illegal.

He explained: “If the court sustains that position that Buni by all intents and purpose and by the provisions of Section 183 of the Constitution does not have the power to hold that position, on the ground that he’s executive governor, he can no longer hold an executive position in another organisation, whether paid or unpaid, then it means that every action taken by him as the caretaker Committee Chair of the APC amounts to a nullity. Every decision taken by him amounts to a nullity, including the Congress and convention that produce the current executive members of the APC.”

As it stands, the PDP is determined to fire from all cylinders – through the ballots in 2023 or through the judicial process to ensure that it sees the back of your APC and returns to power.